URLs du Jour

2018-10-05

Continuing on a theme we've been hitting a lot in recent days, Kevin
D. Williamson wonders if we're on
The
Road to Waco. Recalling Janet Reno, her railroading of daycare
workers accused of Satanic abuse cultism, as well her responsibility
for the Branch Davidian
standoff with
76 deaths.

Our public-policy discourse is dominated by members of our elites and hence tends to reflect elite interests and, at times, elite hysterias. A great deal of attention has been paid in recent years to the epidemic of rape on our nation’s college campuses. That epidemic is a fiction — it simply does not exist, and the data suggest that women in college are less likely than women in the general population to be raped. We are not having a national discussion of rape on Indian reservations, in remote communities in Alaska, or in poor urban areas — i.e., in the places where the incidence of rape is in fact elevated. During the Satan-ritual-abuse panic — and at this minute — one of the most likely places for a child to experience sexual abuse is in the home, especially in “blended” families in which minors cohabit with adult men to whom they are not biologically related. Mothers’ live-in boyfriends and stepfathers commit a great deal more sexual abuse than do the nefarious minions of Satan in underground cults.

But of course the reality — that this world is the mess we make of it — is too painful to accept.

KDW hopes, as do I, that the current wackiness passes before we get
a Waco equivalent.

Our related Amazon Product du Jour is the album "Abattoir of Slain Deities"
by the UK band "Omnipotent Hysteria". Its official genre, which
I
am not making up,
is "Brutal Death Metal". I assume their music would unlistenable to
my tender, aging ears, but their song titles are absolutely
brilliant. ("Ectopic Contagion Vessels" anyone? How about "Forged in the
Embers of Monolithic Devastation"?)

The University of Southern Maine’s president defended the
institution Wednesday night, saying a retired professor acted in a
“rogue manner” when she offered students a “pop-up” course and
college credit to take a bus to Washington, D.C., with demonstrators
planning to urge Sen. Susan Collins to oppose confirming Brett
Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

President Glenn Cummings in a telephone interview denounced the actions of Dr. Susan Feiner, a former professor of economics and women and gender studies, who Cummings said retired from the university on July 1.

Prof Feiner is quoted: "There is nothing seditious about students
taking a bus to Washington, D.C., in a historic moment." Managing to
deny a charge that nobody was actually making. Do I see elective
office in her future?

At EconLog, Bryan Caplan writes on the academic kerfuffle
that we've been blogging about the last couple days
(here,
here),
the fake "grievance studies" paper-writing scam, which some call…
Sokal
2.0 as Ideological Turing Test. What's that? Bryan explains:

Mill states it well: “He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.” If someone can correctly explain a position but continue to disagree with it, that position is less likely to be correct. And if ability to correctly explain a position leads almost automatically to agreement with it, that position is more likely to be correct. (See free trade). It’s not a perfect criterion, of course, especially for highly idiosyncratic views. But the ability to pass ideological Turing tests – to state opposing views as clearly and persuasively as their proponents – is a genuine symptom of objectivity and wisdom.

Bryan goes on to observe:

My idea has inspired multiple
actual tests. But frankly, none of them are in the same
league as Sokal 2.0. Three scholars who held a vast academic
genre in low regard nevertheless managed to master the genre’s
content and style expertly enough to swiftly publish enough articles
[to] earn tenure! Frankly, if that doesn’t impress you, I don’t know what would.

But what does that show? Bryan explains, evenhandedly, as is
his wont. (I have little doubt myself, but I'm not as good as
Bryan.)

When the first official stop sign did appear in Detroit, in 1915, it was small, white, and square, nothing like the red octagon we know today. But in 1923, a branch of Mississippi’s highway department suggested a change—what if a sign’s shape could denote the kind of hazard ahead? The logic was simple: The more sides a sign has, the more dangerous the upcoming stretch of road is.

Circles (which were considered to have infinite sides) designated the riskiest hazards, like railroad crossings. Octagons denoted the second most perilous hazards, like intersections. Diamonds signaled less-tricky stretches, and rectangles were strictly informational. We still use these parameters today, though no one knows why the nonagon drew the short stick.

I like that circles were "considered to have infinite sides".
Somebody was paying attention in calculus class.

And finally, our Google LFOD alert rang for another unlikely source,
a LTE in the Suburban, "Quebec's Largest English Weekly
Newspaper". (Kind of like: "Tallest Building in Wichita", but
anyway). It's from Area Man Brian Echenberg, and he says:
No to compulsory voting. Enough laws already!.

I was intrigued by Mario leclerc’s letter about forcing people to
vote. Aren’t we saddled with enough laws, good and bad, to warrant
the absence of yet another law? Everything from not smoking in
public in Hampstead to laws such as motorcycle helmets to not being
able to ride a motorcycle or scooter after Dec 15th to even
mandatory winter tires in winter. Many of these laws may be somewhat
helpful, but we are being told what we can and can’t do more and
more. New Hampshire with their “live free or die” shown on their license plates doesn’t have a mandatory moto helmet law . After all it’s my head to protect or not as I see fit. And we pay enough taxes for health card to cover accident costs. We are being legislated into the ground. In Montreal we can’t even drive over the mountain. But compulsory voting is extreme and I wouldn’t appreciate being told I have to vote.

Good for you, Brian. Should you want to hop over the border, there
are license plates available for your vehicle, made by our local
prison inmates. Because, in addition to freedom, we love irony.

Disclaimers:
Unquoted opinions expressed herein are solely those of the
blogger.

Pun Salad is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates
Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a
means for the blogger to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.